Sint Niklaas

My final race of camp is complete. The bags are packed. The bikes are packed. Hopefully they are underweight. 6 or 7 of us leave tomorrow at 3am. 5 hours from now. The others are going up to Holland to race Boom and then leaving on Monday. I'm hoping for an all nighter and then full 8 hours sleep on the plane. I arrive in the US at noon and then to Chicago by 4:00pm. Needless to say I'm pretty pumped to head home and see Andrea and Rosco.

Earlier 9 of us cruised up past Antwerp to Sint Niklaas. The race was pretty good. Last year I struggled on the big loop around the lake. Maybe it was my tire selection last year, but this year I had a full arsenal of tires and wheels to choose from. I opted for the EC90 Aeros with the Dugast Rhinos. I was happy with the selection. The course was a little different than last year and I like it much better. Instead of a full loop around the lake we made it half way around and then looped back. There was a huge flyover, some steep icy climbs, steep muddy drops, slick off-camber sections which shot you towards the frozen lake, sand, beach, steps, and of course cobbles.

I had a good start and after a lap was battling in a good group. Pretty close to zero mistakes, perfect tire pressure, and pretty good legs considering this is my 7th race in the past 2 weeks and 5th race in the last 8 days. I'm also fighting a little bit of a cold, but have been pretty good at pounding the Zicam, Vit C, and Echinacea. I finished 26th. Less than 4:00 min down on the winner.

Final Ham & Cheese count is 20! Not too shabby!

Again I would like to thank all my sponsors and those who have donated $ and bought T-Shirts. See you back in America....